The Earliest Romans: A Character Sketch

"A vibrant account that puts flesh on the bare bones of early Roman history."
---Celia Schultz, University of Michigan

The ancient Romans' story down to 264 B.C. can be made credible by stripping away their later myths and inventions to show how their national character shaped their destiny.

After many generations of scholarly study, consensus is clear: the account in writers like Livy is not to be trusted because their aims were different from ours in history-writing. They wanted their wo...